COEUR d'ALENE - In a finish and an atmosphere fit for a 5A Region 1 boys basketball tournament game Saturday, the fourth-ranked Coeur d'Alene Vikings edged the Post Falls Trojans 49-48 at Elmer Jordan Court.

With the victory, the Vikings won the 5A Inland Empire League and earned the No. 1 seed in the 5A Region 1 tournament. After Lake City's 75-36 rout of Lewiston in league play on Saturday, the Timberwolves are the No. 2 seed and the Trojans are the No. 3 seed going into the Region 1 tournament.

In regionals, Coeur d'Alene (14-3, 5-1 IEL) will host No. 4 seed Lewiston and third-ranked Lake City (13-5, 4-2) will host Post Falls (12-7, 2-3). Both games are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. on Feb. 21.

"That was our first goal of the season, was to win our league obviously and the boys came through in a big way," first-year Coeur d'Alene coach Kurt Lundblad said. "I thought they played their guts out tonight. You can't ask kids to play any harder than that."

With 8.3 seconds left in the game, and the game tied at 48, senior guard Austin Paulsen hit the second of two free throws to put the Vikings ahead.

Paulsen missed his first free throw, then Coeur d'Alene called a quick timeout. Afterward, Paulsen drilled the second free throw.

"Everyone on our team lifted me up (during the timeout)," Paulsen said. "The second one, I knew it was going in right when I shot it. That's my thing, is (shooting) free throws. It's about whoever comes out on top last, it's all that matters. Winning league is great, we're glad to have home court advantage. We worked hard throughout the season, we knew it was going to be a great game."

"The timeout was to calm him down and make sure everybody was on the same page," Lundblad said. "I told him, 'You're going to make this one and here's what we're going to do defensively' and we said 'You're all right AP, you're going to make this one' and he's a senior, so I expect him to make it and that's exactly what he did. He's our senior leader, he really is."

Post Falls had the last shot of the game, with 2 seconds left. But junior guard Nick Hall could not connect on a 3-pointer at the top of the key. After Dalton Thompson dribbled the ball off of a Viking player's foot, Hall picked it up and fired away, but the ball was slightly off to the left for an airball. Shortly after the buzzer sounded, several Coeur d'Alene students ran onto the court to celebrate with the Vikings.

With 38 seconds left, Hall tied the game at 48 by drilling a corner 3. He led all scorers with 19 points, 10 in the second half.

"Nick was forced to take a desperation shot," Post Falls coach Mike McLean said. "He was just trying to make a play. It wasn't the smoothest transition between Dalton and Nick, but it definitely wasn't either of their fault. The (original) play was for Nick to go hard to the basket and if he's not open, Dalton was going to take the shot."

With 6:29 left in the game, Trojan backup guard Luke Anderson, who scored 11 points, drained a 3 to put Post Falls ahead, 37-36, for its first lead of the game. With 4:36 left, Coeur d'Alene took its final lead of the game, on a lay-in by junior forward Tony Naccarato, to make it 41-39 Vikings.

Lundblad said he enjoyed watching the balanced efforts, both offensively and defensively, of the Vikings, who shot 18 for 44 from the field and 7 for 15 from the free-throw line. Devin Kluss scored 14 points and Tony Naccarato added 13.

"I thought it was the total team package tonight," Lundblad said. "Everybody played hard and everybody contributed and we had some moments where we didn't execute offensively, started to get into a little one-on-one. But I thought we played really well."

Post Falls, which trailed 26-21 at halftime, was 9 for 28 from the field in the first half and 18 for 51 in the game.

"We knew whether you win or lose, we'll have to beat the same teams during regionals," McLean said. "Coeur d'Alene made enough plays to win. We took some ill-advised shots in the first half and we didn't score enough in the lane."

Proceeds from the ticket sales and food and drinks sold all went to a foundation that will help pay for the medical costs of Coeur d'Alene football coach Shawn Amos and Post Falls coach Jeff Hinz, both of whom were recently diagnosed with cancer. A total of more than $9,000 was raised.

Amos has been battling Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hinz has been recovering from non-smoker's adenocarcinoma in his left hip.

Both teams' coaches wore black T-shirts with white letterhead that read, 'Tackle Cancer', with the names of Hinz and Amos on them. Both football coaches attended Saturday's game.

Coeur d'Alene plays two straight nonleague games at home this upcoming week to wrap up its regular season. On Thursday, it will play Moscow and the Vikings will play Saturday against Sandpoint.

Post Falls will play Friday at Lewiston in a 5A IEL game to wrap up its regular season.

Post Falls 6 15 10 17 - 48

Coeur d'Alene 14 12 10 13 - 49

POST FALLS - Thompson 4, Pfennigs 1, Koski 4, Hall 19, McCullough 2, McKeown 0, Hillman 7, Anderson 11.

COEUR d'ALENE - T. Naccarato 13, Kluss 14, Paulsen 3, Daniels 9, Carpenter 7, Hicks 2, Williams 1.